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Monthly Archives: September 2014

I personally think “Rolling in the Deep” is one of those songs that it doesn’t matter who covers it, the original is always going to be best. It just sounds like Aretha Franklin is having a bit too much fun with Adele’s song. The original song is about intense heartbreak and anger at a spurned lover, so singing “ain’t no mountain high enough” (starts at 2:45) and doing those vocal runs just doesn’t make sense. It almost sounds like Aretha is celebrating something…but really, “Rolling in the Deep” is not something you play to rejoice and celebrate; it’s something you blare when you’re pissed off at someone or hurt deeply.

I’m not saying Aretha’s version is awful, it’s just different. I actually thought it was pretty fun to listen to.

Heard this remake of Taylor Swift’s hit “Shake it Off,” and I thought it was interesting…kind of wish my orchestra would do this….although, you can tell that the person who made it was using software instruments (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

She blew up this summer with her hit “All About That Bass,” but Meghan Trainor’s new EP Title really shows that she’s certainly more than her bass. It’s a relatively short EP (is there really any other kind?) of only four songs, but she’s rather incredible on all of them. Now, I was obsessed like everyone else with “All About That Bass” (it was even a #PhillipsSongOfTheDay) but I was convinced she would be another one hit wonder. Then I got Title and realized that her music is actually quite hilarious and fun to listen to…and it’s rather unusual to today’s pop music.

The best anthem has to be the title track, “Title.” The track itself features an infectious bass singer singing “do” as the bass line (if you hear it, it’ll make sense what I’m trying to explain). But the thing that really makes the music is the horn that joins in during the chorus. Trainor’s vocals are vibrant and lively, especially how she sings “give me that title” at the end of the chorus. It’s just a sweet little tune that you can jam to so you can forget about your day, and it makes you feel better.

The one thing that I really got to like about Meghan Trainor is that her lyrics that she writes are rather colloquial. I mean that she doesn’t try to be fancy, she just speaks her mind (which, in itself, makes it very clever). For example, look at these lyrics:

“If I hear that word againYou might never get a chance to see me naked in your bed”

“Then consider this an invitation to kiss my ass goodbye”

“Don’t call me booLike you’re some kind of ghost”

Needless to say, I’ve been listen to Title on repeat for a while, and I highly recommend this EP. All I really can say is that I can’t wait for her full-length album. Not only does she make great music, but she makes her music her own…which is something hard to do.

I just read an article from Billboard magazine reviewing Pure Heroine by Lorde, and they commended her for the opening line “Don’t you think how it’s boring how people talk?” on the first track, “Tennis Court.” Which is great, but they then noted the last line of the last track, “A World Alone,” is “Let them talk.” Their praise came for the fact that she linked the opening lyric to the closing lyric:

“Don’t you think how it’s boring how people talk?”

***

“Let them talk”

And I had not realized that until now. And my mind is blown. That is just so clever, I’m amazed that she did that.

I thought I’d share so you can have your minds blown as well…back to studying…

I don’t want to brag, but I’ve been to three concerts in the past three days. I got to see Lorde, Sky Ferreira, and Ed Sheeran in concert, and each was just mind-blowing to see. Because I’m a broke college student and concert tickets are so expensive, I usually only go to concerts where I absolutely 100% love every single song the person sings. Which basically means I’ve only seen Taylor Swift in concert. When I heard Lorde was coming to Boston, I just thought “why not?” I mean, I really like her music (I’ve been listening to The Love Club EP and Pure Heroine on repeat these past couple weeks). She was playing at Boston Calling, an annual music festival Boston puts on. The ticket is kind of expensive ($85-ish) but it gets you into a day of a ton bands, games, and “free things” (I got three pairs of sunglasses for “free”! (I say “free” because essentially part of my ticket went to paying for them)). And you get this cool wrist band so you can come and go from the festival, which allows you to explore Boston when bands you don’t know/like are playing. So the day I was going, Lorde was going to perform as well as Sky Ferreira, whose music I recently discovered and have quite enjoyed.

When I got to the festival, Sky Ferreria was beginning her set, and I must say that girl can sing. I was kind of skeptical because her vocals on her album Night Time, My Time have a lot of effects on them, so I thought she would be a bit pitchy. But, no, this girl can belt out those tunes. It was fantastic. She didn’t do much but stand there and sing, but she really didn’t need to. It was breathtaking, the bass beating loud and the drums vibrating against my soul. Even I, the guy who has never danced in public in his life, joined in the mosh pit. Yes, it was that good.

Then there was a five hour delay until Lorde…we were evacuated because of the weather…it’s actually a long, epic story for another time. But, it was worth the wait.

I know Lorde is only seventeen and only just started out in her career, but her performance was so spectacular it was legendary. The lights flash, and she’s dancing/headbanging (her hair flips are something else) and she’s just owning every single song. It was just so thrilling to see her bring her songs to life. What I enjoyed the most was that she didn’t sing the songs like they are on her record. She made them slightly different. The best was her performance of “Team.” I can’t really explain what she did, but she made it a total dance number…it was just so incredible. Without a doubt, I would see Lorde in concert again. I wish her set was longer than fifty minutes, though…

Now, I just got home from Ed Sheeran. I’ve seen him in concert before, but man what a talented guy he is. He’s a one man band, where he strums his guitar/smacks his guitar to make drum beats/sings sounds and puts them on loop. It was inspiring as a musician to see. But really I thought was great was how he connected with his audience. He talked with us like he was talking to us personally…like, I felt it was just me and Sheeran (in a not creepy way). He told us a story about how he saw a chicken get run over by a car, and then he essentially watch the chicken die…so he wrote a song about it. Then he played the song for us. I’m not even joking.

At one point a girl screamed out “I LOVE YOU” and he actually stopped playing and looked up at her and smiled and said something like “wouldn’t it be funny if that was on the recording.”

He started off the show saying “I want you guys to sing these words as loud as possible. If you don’t know the words, make them up. You’re not doing it right unless you lose your voice.”

I have a boatload of pictures/videos I can/want to share, but it requires me to do some editing/uploading and I don’t quite have the time yet…look for that in the coming weeks (#busycollegestudent)